CUSTOM MATERIALS PACKS

How to Create & Install Custom Materials Packs

in CLIP Studio Paint

INTRODUCTION

When you first installed CLIP Studio Paint (CSP) – or Manga Studio – you probably also downloaded a large pack of additional materials to install and it was really easy right? You ran the "Materials Installer" utility, it chugged away for a while, and when you re-opened CSP there were all sorts of new materials in the Materials palette, nicely tagged and organized for you.

If you're wondering where all the other cool materials are that you can install, they're...in Japan. On the Celsys "Clip-Site" materials marketplace. Which is only available to users in Japan. So, you may be wondering, where is the American materials marketplace? Well, there isn't one.

UPDATE JANUARY 2017

In mid-December 2016 Celsys pushed out update 1.6.2 which now includes a Clip Studio Assets manager, and the huge ZIP file of extra materials are no longer available or necessary.  Updated versions of all of those materials, and other free materials released on the Celsys website, are now stored in what they're calling the "cloud" and you download them from there - either on-demand or, if you don't mind an excruciatingly long download, everything in one run.

Though they are calling it a "cloud" it really isn't.  It's just a website from which you download the materials, none of YOUR materials or work is uploaded to the site.  It's not like Abode Creative Cloud.  The Clip Studio Assets manager, and the materials site it connects to, are like a seriously pared down version of the Clip Studio Clip Site that has been available to users in Japan for years.  Those of us outside of Japan, however, still do not have official translations of the other programs in the Clip Studio Suite to produce, upload, share/sell our own creations - but hopefully this new Assets system is the first step in that direction.  Until we DO get an official method for creating and sharing our own materials packs, however, the method outlined on this page still works!

While it is easy to import various things to CSP and create custom materials of your own, the program has no function to easily export, back-up, or share your custom materials with other users.

The majority of user-created materials are things like brushes, color swatches, patterns, or poses. For brushes and color swatches CSP actually has options to "export" those sub-tools. Installation is relatively painless, as you just drag and drop the downloaded brush or color set to the correct palette.

For other materials users have been dropping them into layers in a document and then distributing the document. To install those you need to manually select each layer, register it as a material, and set its properties. That has pretty much been the only way to share any kind of material that appears in the Materials palette.

UNTIL NOW!

It took me about a week of experimentation but I finally figured out HOW you collect your custom materials into packs that can be easily shared and installed by other users! You can't use the "Materials Installer" utility, but the process of installing a pack is really simple.

If you're only interested in installing packs created by other users, you can skip the "Creating" section below and go to the "Installing" section.

DISCLAIMER

Installing user-created materials this way is an unofficial, unsupported hack. Because this will make your CSP a "non-standard installation" do NOT expect either Celsys or Smith Micro customer service to help you if this messes up your system. You do this at your own risk. That said, the risk is pretty small and I'll even tell you how to fix one of the problems you may run into.

Ok, if that didn't scare you off get yourself a fresh, favorite beverage, settle into a comfy position, and get ready to go to school - because we've got a LOT of ground to cover...

CREATING CUSTOM MATERIALS

Under the "Edit" menu there are two options to get your custom stuff into the Materials palette:

1. Register Image as Material – turns the selection - either marquee selection or layer(s) selection – into a material for the Materials palette. Most objects in CSP are considered "images.' The material's native size will only be as large as the selection/object(s).

2. Register Layer as Template Material – if the layer(s) consist of only comic frames it will turn it into a "Framing Template," otherwise it will create a simple "Layer Template" which will have a native size as large as the entire canvas and the preview will be shown with a white background (note, however the actual framing/layer template has a transparent background). A "Layer Template" is essentially the same as an Image Material and can be used in the same way HOWEVER there is one huge difference!

That difference is that anything that is set to be a "template" will also be available when you initially create a document and check the "Template" box. Which would allow you to, for example, create a multi-page document where every single page was created already including the elements of the selected template. So, for example, if you wanted every page to be in a fancy frame, or every page to have a design around the page number, or every page to have a patterned background – you could create a custom template to be applied when the document was created, thus saving yourself time and trouble manually placing it on every page.

Pro-Tip: 99% of the time you're going to want to use "Register Image as Material" though.

Creating Custom Frame Templates

If you're working on a comic strip, as opposed to a comic book, you'll want to create a custom frame template. The frame templates that come with CLIP Studio Paint are geared more toward manga and may not be the kind of layouts you want. Here is a really good tutorial on how to create your own custom Frame templates: http://webcomics.com/archive-dive/manga-studio-how-to-build-a-template-2/

Remember to select either the individual layers that make up the template or the layer folder that contains them and use "Edit → Register Layer as Template Material."

Make sure you select the "Manga Material → Framing Template" for the category in the Materials palette.

Creating Custom Patterns

If you have a seamless texture, or any other kind of image you want to tile, it's really easy to add them. If the image is meant to be seamless make sure you edit it so the left side matches up to the right and the top matches up to the bottom – and of course that the corners match to the opposite corner too. If you created or edited the image on the Canvas in CSP you can go to "Edit → Register Image as Material" and in the Material Properties dialog check the "Scale Up/Down," "Repeat," and "Specify Overlay" and move the slider down to "Person/Item etc." - set it to one of the Pattern sub-categories, and put it in the Materials palette.

Note that there is also a way to convert multiple layers – including mixed raster and vector layers – into a pattern. Collect the layers into a layer folder and convert them to an "Image Material" (keep in mind any vector layers will be moved above raster layers, regardless of the layer order in the Layers palette). Then got to "Edit → Register Image as Material" and set the properties.

Lastly, the easiest one, is to import an existing image as a pattern. Under "File → Import → Pattern from Image" it will bring it into the canvas already set as a repeating pattern layer. Simply select the layer in the Layers palette and go to "Edit → Register Image as Material" and set the properties.

Custom Brush Tips

Virtually any image you create or import to CSP can be turned into a custom brush tip. When you select the layer(s) go to "Edit → Register Image as Material" and make sure you check the "Use as Brush Tip" option under the preview image, and then put it into the "Image Material → Brush" sub-category in the Materials palette. Once it's there you can duplicate whatever brush you want in the Sub-Tool palette and change the brush tip of the duplicate pen/brush into your material in the Tool Properties palette. Here are full instructions on how to do that: http://www.clipstudio.net/en/howto/kona_04

Exporting Custom Brushes

This is one of two types of materials CSP will actually let you export. Select the brush in the Sub-Tool Palette, right+click on it and select "Export sub-tool…" from the context menu. That will pop-up a dialog to say the ".sut" file.

This is the most common way people share their custom brushes with other users. They bundle up all their exported .sut files and other users simply drag-and-drop them into their own Sub-Tool Palette.

Exporting Custom Color Sets

This is the other of the two types of materials CSP will actually let you export.

1. Select the color set in the drop down of the Color Palette,
2. Then click the fly-out menu at the top of the palette, and select "Export Color Set…"

Just as with brushes, it pops up a dialog box asking where to save the ".cls" file. I haven't actually seen a lot of custom color sets floating around, but they too can be easily shared in this format allowing other users to drag-and-drop them to the Color Palette.

Creating Custom Brush Materials

Instead of keeping your custom brushes in the Sub-Tool Palette where you might accidentally delete them you can store them as re-usable, persistent materials in the Materials palette.

Select your custom brush in the Sub-Tool palette, right+click and select "Register sub-tool as material…" instead of the export option. A Properties dialog box pops up allowing you to rename the brush, set a category in which to store it (Image Materials → Brush is a good place, or create your own custom sub-folder for them).

Now, you can delete the brush from the Sub-Tool Palette and restore it whenever you actually need to use it by dragging-and-dropping it from the Materials palette to the Sub-Tool palette. Easy!

Better yet, you can now categorize your brushes with tags to make the perfect brush even easier to find. It will automatically create the "Brush Tool" tag if it doesn't already exist, but you can easily add your own tags by double-clicking on the brush in the Materials palette, which opens the Properties dialog where you can enter more tags.

You can, of course, get much more detailed and organized beyond simply filtering brushes by tags.  The experimental default brushes materials pack I made available for download below uses the following custom folders in the Materials Palette.  Unfortunately the manual installation method has no way to create these folders automatically, so anyone who downloads that pack will have to manually create these folder (but once they do the brushes will auto-sort themselves into them, and you can create the folders beforehand or after installing the pack, it doesn't matter).

Creating Custom Color Set Materials

As with the custom brushes, you can also keep your custom Color Sets in the Materials palette instead of the Color Palette. This allows you to create a library of custom color sets with a nice little thumbnail preview of the color swatches.

1. Select the Color Set you want with the drop-down menu in the Color Palette.
2. Hit the fly-out menu at the top of the palette and select "Register color set as material…" from the context menu.

The Material Properties dialog will open, give your set a name, and hit "OK." It will automatically create the "Color Set" tag if it doesn't already exist.

Oh, but where should you put color sets in the Materials Palette? Well, you can put them anywhere you like, but it might be easier to just create a new category named "Color Sets" and put/move them there.

This is a good way to store color sets you may not use very often. You can safely delete them from the drop-down list in the Color Palette and drag them from the Materials Palette and drop them on the Color Palette whenever you need them.

Creating 2D Backgrounds, Illustrations, or Photos

These are really simple. Import the images to the canvas, select the layer(s) and "Edit → Register Images as Material" and set it into the correct sub-category of the Materials palette.

Creating 3D Objects, Backgrounds, or Characters

There is no way to create 3D models within Clip Studio Paint. You will need to create them in some modeling program. Importing custom 3D models is as simple as drag-and-drop them to the Canvas, with some limitations.

Supported file formats: c2fc, c2fr, fbx, lwo, obj, 6kt, 6kh

Both "c2fc" and "c2fr" are CLIP Studio native formats, but are more than just models. They are collections of models, textures, poses, and camera angel data created with CLIP Studio Coordinate. Which is a free program, but is only officially available in Japanese (however you can use a slightly older, unofficially translated English language version). These are the only file types you can safely drag and drop unzipped to the canvas and be sure they'll import with the textures applied.

FBX is the recommended format, particularly for posable character models. Note, however, that if the model's "bones" do not conform to the "Celsys Standard Bone" structure you will not be able to drag and drop poses onto the character, you will have to manually pose it each time you use it. Zip up the folder containing the model and its textures then drag and drop it to the canvas.

Pro-Tip: If you are creating pose-able models read my other multi-part post on Making Models, download the sample models, and download the translated user manuals, which includes the Celsys Standard Bone spec.

OBJ files are best for static models, like 3D Backgrounds (i.e., rooms, cars, etc.). In the model's folder (before you try to import it) you may need to move the object textures to the same level as the model itself and edit the "MTL" file to point to the new location, or after import the model will not have textures applied to it.

Those are the only model formats with which I have worked in Clip Studio Paint. If a model won't import in ZIP format, try unzipping it and drag-and-drop the uncompressed folder and see if that works.

Once the model is on your canvas you can select the 3D layer in the Layers palette and go to "Edit → Register Image as Material" (3D objects are considered "images").

You will notice that the Celsys documentation explicitly states that "3D Materials can be imported only to the canvas. They cannot be imported to a [Material] palette." [http://www.clip-studio.com/site/gd_en/csp/userguide/csp_userguide/720_3d_material/720_3d_material_open.htm#XREF_64411_3D]

Well, once you've registered them as Materials, though, you WILL be able to create a custom Pack with 3D materials that will install (not import) directly to the Material palette.

CREATING CUSTOM MATERIALS PACKS

Once you've created your custom materials you may want to collect them into a "pack" that can be backed-up or shared and installed by other CLIP Studio Paint users. Here's how you do it!

1. The first thing you'll need to do is FIND the registered materials in your local User Account documents. On both Mac and Windows they'll be inside:

/Documents/CELSYS_EN/CLIPStudioCommon/Material

2. Inside that "Material" folder you'll see a bunch of other folders with numbers for names. One or more of those are what you're looking for. But which one(s)? To make it easier to narrow down your search try sorting the contents by "Date Modified" which will raise the most recent materials registered to the top of the list.

3. Open each of the numbered folders in turn. They'll have one or more sub-folders, also with numbers for names. Inside those folders may be more sub-folders with long, random (UUID) names. THESE are the ones we're looking for!

4. When you find a UUID folder, look inside of it for the "thumbnail" sub-folder. It will have one or more image files inside of it. One of these will be the same thumbnail representing that material in the Materials Palette in CSP.

5. When you've located the material(s) you want, copy the entire UUID folder for it to a new folder somewhere else, like on your desktop. This is where you'll be building your share-able materials pack.

6. Once you've found all the folders for your materials and have copied them to your working pack folder you should probably put a README.TXT file in there too telling people what the pack is and how to install/uninstall it (you can use the one I created as a template). You might also want to include a "contact sheet" image of what cool stuff is in the pack and/or a web link to your website or whatever.

7. Once all the contents of your Pack are set it's time to compress it! Select all the individual UUID folders and the additional files you put at the root level of the folder and on Windows right+click and "Send to Archive" or on Mac right+click and select "Compress to Archive."

Note: I recommend selecting the contents and compressing them, rather than the containing folder, because when decompressed on Windows it will ensure that the contents are only one level deep in the unzipped folder. Otherwise they'd be two levels deep and installation will fail.

Note for Mac Users: Before you share your ZIP file make sure to make it cross-platform friendly by stripping out the Mac-only files. I recommend using ZipCleaner to do that, you just drag and drop the ZIP file onto the ZipCleaner icon and confirm the removal of the platform-specific files.

8. Rename the resulting ZIP archive to something descriptive.

9. Share the Pack online with other CSP users.

That's it! You're now in the CLIP Studio Paint custom materials biz!

INSTALLING CUSTOM MATERIALS PACKS

1. Download the Pack archive, which is probably a ZIP file.

2. Decompress/Un-Zip the Pack

3. Copy/Move/Extract the Pack FOLDER (not just the contents) to the GLOBAL FOLDER Install Location:

GLOBAL FOLDER Install Location

On Mac:

Volumes/[Mac Drive]/Library/Application Support/CELSYS_EN/CLIPStudio/Common/Material/Install/

On Windows:

C:\ProgramData\CELSYS_EN\CLIPStudio\Common\Material\Install

Note: “ProgramData” is a hidden folder

4. Open CSP and run "Reset Installed Materials" operation (under the "CLIP Studio Paint" menu on Mac, or under "File" on Windows).

UPDATE JANUARY 2017: Beginning in version 1.6.2 the Install/Organize/Reset operations have been moved to the separate Clip Studio Assets Manager app under the "Gear" icon → Maintenance Menu → Reset Installed Materials.

5. It will ask you to confirm the materials reset, click OK:

6. Wait for the progress bar to finish:

DONE! The new Materials should now be in your Materials palette.

Pro-Tip: You can drag multiple Custom Materials Packs into the Global Install Location and install them all in one Reset.  You do not have to do them one at a time and keep re-running the Reset operation!

UNINSTALLING CUSTOM MATERIALS PACKS

There are two locations where installed materials exist.  The aforementioned "Global" location, which applies to ALL USERS of the computer and the "Local" location which is within a specific User Account on the computer.

Typically only someone with "Administrator" privileges would be able to alter the contents of the Global Folder, but regular User Accounts could not.  A regular User Account would only be able to alter the contents of the Local Folder.  An Administrator could, of course, alter the contents of both locations.

It is very purposely set up this way!  The system's Administrator gets to decide what Materials are in the Global Folder, which acts as sort of a "Master Library" of materials made available to all users on the system.  It may seem heavy-handed or like overkill if you're the only person who uses your computer or it is a  home computer.  However, if you think about it this makes total sense if you were in a production environment and were using licensed materials or materials that required some kind of sign-off before they could be used.  An Administrator would have to make sure no materials were available in that "Master Library" that hadn't been licensed or otherwise approved.

Individual users, though, may not have any use for some of those materials and therefore can customize their working list by deleting materials they don't use from the Materials Palette without affecting their availability to other users.  In fact, if the User deleted the material accidentally a simple "reset" operation will restore it from the Global Folder.

However, if an Administrator deletes a material from the Global Folder it will no longer be available in that "Master Library" or to ANY users on the system.  The next time any user opens Clip Studio Paint it would go through the "first run" initialization process again - during which it rectifies differences between the contents of the two locations and automatically removes materials from the User's "Local Folder" if they are no longer available in the "Global Folder."  This allows an Administrator to authorize and revoke materials and enforces those decisions on all User Accounts.

However, when you create custom materials they only exist within your User Account local Documents folder - they aren't even available to other users on the same computer.  If you followed my instructions above on how to collect materials into packs you may have noticed that the randomly numbered folders just inside your Documents/.../Materials/ sub-folder are at the same level as the "Install" folder.  When you change the contents of the Global Install Location it only affects the contents of users' Local Install Location - meaning only things inside the "Install" folder, not any custom materials that exist outside of it.

UNINSTALL INDIVIDUAL PACK MATERIALS (LOCAL)

1. Open Clip Studio Paint

2. Navigate to the Material(s) you wish to remove in the Materials palette.

3. Select the Material(s) to be removed

4. Click the Trash icon at the bottom of the Materials palette.

5. Confirm the deletion.

Note: To restore previously removed materials run “Reset Installed Materials” again, it will copy them from the GLOBAL FOLDER into the Local Folder again.

UNINSTALL FULL PACK (LOCAL FOLDER)

1. Delete Pack folder from LOCAL FOLDER Install location:

On Mac:

Volumes/[Mac Drive]/Users/[YourUserName]/Documents/CELSYS_EN/CLIPStudioCommon/Material/Install/

On Windows:

C:\Users\[YourUserName]\Documents\CELSYS_EN\CLIPStudioCommon\Material\Install\

2. Open Clip Studio Paint

3. Update the local database by running "Organize Materials" (under the "Clip Studio Paint" menu on Mac, or under "File" on Windows).

UPDATE JANUARY 2017: Beginning in version 1.6.2 the Install/Organize/Reset operations have been moved to the separate Clip Studio Assets Manager app under the "Gear" icon → Maintenance Menu → Organize Materials.

4. Confirm the operation, a progress bar appears, wait for it to complete.

Note: To get them back simply re-run “Reset Installed Materials” and it will pull it back from the ALL USERS global installation.

UNINSTALLING INDIVIDUAL PACK MATERIALS (GLOBAL FOLDER)

1. Go to the GLOBAL FOLDER Install location

2. Find the Pack folder inside it

3. Look in each individual pack material sub-folder (the ones with the long, random file names)

4. Look at the image file in the “thumbnail” sub-folder.

5. If it is a material you want to remove, delete the parent folder with the long, random UUID file name).

When users on the same computer open Clip Studio Paint it should pop up a dialog box that says:

“Preparing to use. Do not start other CLIP STUDIO series until this process is completed.” 

You have no other option but to press “OK” which will then automatically remove the materials from that User’s LOCAL FOLDER as well.

UNINSTALLING FULL PACK (GLOBAL FOLDER)

1. Go to the GLOBAL FOLDER Install location

2. Delete the entire Pack folder from GLOBAL FOLDER Install location

When users on the same computer open Clip Studio Paint it should pop up a dialog box that says:

“Preparing to use. Do not start other CLIP STUDIO series until this process is completed.” 

 You have no other option but to press “OK” which will then automatically remove the materials from that User’s LOCAL FOLDER as well.

KNOWN PROBLEMS

FIX ERROR: "Initialization of install materials failed"

This error is more common on Windows machines. One known cause is to have a computer user account name containing certain characters, for example, a German name with an umlaut. The only fix for that problem is to create a new user account on the computer with a simple name containing no non-English characters and see if that fixes it.

Ah, but what do you do if you're seeing this and you have a simple user name like "Joe" or "Beth" and you want to install custom materials?

You NUKE your local materials catalog file (in other words you delete it).

On both Mac and Windows it is located in your user account Documents folder:

Documents/CELSYS_EN/CLIPStudioCommon/MaterialDB/CatalogMaterial.cmdb

The next time you open CLIP Studio Paint it will automatically create a fresh, but empty, CatalogMaterial.cmdb file. Now run the "Reset Installed Materials" operation (under File on Windows, under CLIP Studio Paint menu on Mac).

That should fix it, though it may happen again the next time you install a custom material pack.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

Q. Why can't you use the Materials Installer utility to install these materials?

A. The only installable pack I had available for testing was the one provided by Celsys for people to install right after installing CSP. It has a file in it called "material.inf" that is apparently what allows the Materials Installer Utility to recognize it as an installable materials pack.

I tried changing the name to something else, but it appears this file MUST be named "material.inf" or it fails. Unfortunately it is not a text file like many INF files are and it cannot be edited. It actually appears to be a binary file, but I couldn't make sense of any of it in a Hex Editor either. Perhaps it's encrypted. I don't know. But unless and until someone figures out what format this file is in and/or how to edit/create them, there is no way to get the Materials Installer utility to recognize the pack as an installable.

Thankfully you don't actually need it. The manual installation method is really easy – the only downside is you need Admin access to the computer (but I'm guessing that isn't a big problem for most people).

Q. Can you create custom folders for your materials in the Materials palette?

A. Ideally you should figure out which of the existing folders should contain your material(s), but it is possible to for you to create your own custom folders and folder hierarchy. However, after installation on another user's system your materials will "remember" a folder structure that doesn't exist on the other user's system. If the same folder structure (with the same names) are created on that user's system the materials in your pack will automatically sort themselves into them. Otherwise they'll only be available at the lowest level folder that does exist.

Do not assume other users will have or create non-standard folders on their system.

For example, the "Default Brushes" pack available below was created with a "Tools" folder directly under the "All Materials" level of the Materials palette. Without the "Tools" folder, and it's sub-folders, the brushes in the pack will ONLY appear if you select "All Materials" because it is the lowest-level folder that does exist.

As another example, let's say you created a large sub-set of monochrome patterns and you put them in a sub-folder called "Ancient_Egypt" under "All materials → Monochrome Patterns → Patterns" and then distribute them in a pack. When other users install them on their system they'll appear in that last folder named "Patterns" because it is the lowest-level folder that does exist. If that user then creates a folder inside "Patterns" and names it "Ancient_Egypt" suddenly all the materials from your custom pack will automatically sort themselves into it.

Pro-Tip: when creating custom folder names only the first word can be capitalized. If you intend for additional words to be capitalized do not use a space in between, use a dash or an underscore.

Q. Why do the custom packs need to be installed to the "Global Folder?"

A. In my testing I found out that you CAN install a pack directly into the LOCAL folder, and run the "Organize Materials" operation to get the materials to show up in the Materials Palette. But they won't survive a restart of CSP. On restart CSP apparently scans for differences between the LOCAL and GLOBAL folders and automatically rectifies the local one to contain only the same materials as the global one. You can manually remove materials you don't use that are part of that master set without affecting other users, but you can't have materials that aren't part of the master set.

This may seem annoying, but it sort of makes sense. The system Administrator should have final say in what is installed on the system, not User level accounts. If you were using this in a commercial setting you'd certainly want an administrative person deciding which materials are available to employees using that computer, to make sure nobody is using anything unlicensed or from an unknown source.

Q. Why does it sometimes pop up a dialog box that says it's running for the first time?

A. Because the custom packs are not being installed by the Materials Installer utility there is apparently some little thing that isn't getting updated in the materials database, so on start-up it detects materials folders it doesn't immediately recognize and does a quick check to see if they're also in the Global install location. Which they should be, at which point it proceeds normally. In my experience it only tended to do this right after installing the materials and possibly the first time you open CSP on subsequent days.

Incidentally, if you have materials in the Local folder that aren't in the Global folder, while this "first run" dialog is being displayed is when it automatically deletes the contents of the "unauthorized" folder.

Q. If the database is screwed up can you fix it manually?

A. Technically, yes. You can. All of the user's CSP settings and resources are either stored in plain text files or SQL Lite database files. For the database files if they become corrupt you can usually just remove them from their respective folders and the next time you open CSP it will recreate them. If it's seriously screwed reinstalling Clip Studio Paint is probably the best plan.

Q. What happens if the UUID of my custom material is the same as someone else's?

A. The UUID is practically unique and the odds of another material being assigned the exact same code is very slim. Furthermore, Clip Studio Paint doesn't actually use the UUID on the folder in your custom pack. When the material is installed it will be assigned a "Catalog ID" (stored in the CatalogMaterial.cmdb database file) with a reference to the original UUID and the path to the original file in the pack. Therefore, even if the same material is in two packs the materials catalog will treat them as different because they originate from different paths and are assigned unique UUIDs on installation. In other words, don't worry about it.

EXPERIMENTAL TEST PACKS

In the process of figuring all this out I created some experimental "test packs" to see if I could successfully build them, install them, uninstall them, reinstall them...all in all I did that a good dozen times with the Clip Studio Paint 1.5.x English version on both Mac and Windows.

In real-life I only know one other person who has Clip Studio Paint installed on their system (Windows) and I repeatedly asked him to please try to install and uninstall these experimental packs I created. But he's not very tech-savvy and I guess, despite my reassurances, I was asking him to do something outside his comfort zone.

So understand that YOU are now the guinea pigs in my experiment! How's that for a disclaimer?

Trust me, though, if you follow my instructions to the letter you won't screw up your installation. I never actually had to reinstall the Clip Studio Paint app, and if I didn't completely hose my install you aren't going to either. Ok, here they are – the links to the experimental packs, download one or all of them:

Kirby Layouts Version 1 (DOWNLOAD)

A rough attempt to create a set of comic page layouts inspired by the panel arrangements preferred by Jack Kirby. These need to be tightened up a bit, but they show how to create a layout template pack.

Default Brushes Pack (DOWNLOAD)

Adds all the default brushes from the Brushes palette to your Materials Palette. Make sure you follow the README file! It explains how to create the custom folders that organize the brushes into sets.

Argyles Pattern Pack (DOWNLOAD)

A set of 9 new seamless argyle clothing patterns. These will be automatically added to your existing patterns.

Plaids Pattern Pack (DOWNLOAD)

A set of 9 new seamless plaid clothing patterns. These will be automatically added to your existing patterns.

Tartans Pattern Pack (DOWNLOAD)

A set of 7 new seamless tartan patterns. These will be added to your existing patterns.

Caveman Grunk's World (DOWNLOAD)

A set that includes my Caveman Grunk 3D character model, a stone-age house for him as a 3D Background model, his Caveman Club as a 3D Object, and a 2D Illustrated background image.  If you want to know how all of it was put together please read my multi-part Making Models article, which also includes a link to ZIP with all the source materials used to create these materials.

"Grunk is home owner now!"

After installation if you decide you don't like or want a pack simply follow the uninstallation instructions above.

I really hope this will encourage people to create custom materials packs and share them, since those of us outside of Japan do not have a user-created content marketplace this is really our only option.  Please post your questions, comments, or links to your own packs in the comments below.